A new Late Triassic age for the Puesto Viejo Group (San Rafael depocenter, Argentina): SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating and biostratigraphic correlations across southern Gondwana

The Puesto Viejo Group crops out in the San Rafael Block, southwest Mendoza, at approximately 35° S and 68°20' W. It consists of the basal mainly grayish Quebrada de los Fósiles Formation (QF) overlying by the reddish Río Seco de la Quebrada Formation (RSQ). The basal unit includes both plant remains (pleuromeians and sphenopsids) and vertebrates (scattered fish scales, dicynodont synapsids and remains of an archosauriform). In contrast, the RSQ beds have yielded only tetrapods, although a more diverse fauna. The latter includes cynodonts as Cynognathus, Pascualognathus and Diademodon, and also dicynodonts (Vinceria and Kannemeyeria). Based on the assemblage of tetrapod taxa the bearing levels were correlated to the Cynognathus AZ of South Africa and thus referred to the Middle Triassic (Anisian). We obtained a SHRIMP ²³⁸U/²⁰⁶Pb age of 235.8±2.0Ma from a rhyolitic ignimbrite interdigitated between the QF and RSQ formations at the Quebrada de los Fósiles section. This new radiometric date for the Puesto Viejo Group suggests that the tetrapod fauna in the RSQ beds existed, instead, during the Late Triassic (early Carnian) some 10Ma later than the currently accepted age. Two scenarios might explain our results: first, the Cynognathus AZ of South Africa is wrongly assigned to the lower Middle Triassic (Anisan) and should be considered younger in age, Late Triassic (Carnian); second, the relative age of the Cynognathus AZ of South Africa is correct but the inferred range of Cynognathus and Diademodon is incorrect as they were present during the Late Triassic (Carnian) at least in South America. In any case, this new date pose serious doubts about the validity of biostratigraphic correlations based solely on tetrapod taxa, a common practice for Triassic continental successions across Gondwana.